Creping machine



' May 23, 1933. A, SHEESLEY 1,911,001.

CREPING MACHINE Filed Jan. 24. leso 2 sheets-Sheet 2 w gz; 1 u L 6i Q 1L1 u. s W

u Q M 1.a 'l Q MACE A. S/[561.5 Y

Patented May 1933 UNI-Teo; STATES HormonA A. simnsninr,` oF ron'rLANn,MAINE, AssxGNon To CONTINENTAL Parna- PATENT or-PicE & `BAG CORPORATION,OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPQRATION F NEW YORK i .camine morfinaApplication filed vJanuary 24, 1930.l Serial No.` 422,971.

This'invention relates to improvements in machines for creping paper, orsimilar materlal to-adapt it for use in the manufacture of pa er towelsand the like.

achines have been devised heretofore for thepurpose of creating crimpsor folds of various sorts in a long strip or web of paper fed lcontinuously through the machine. These usually have involved the use ofa plurality ofmetallic rollers which are grooved ,or corrugated orotherwise formed with cooperating teeth or projections adapted to -in anumberof longitudinal lines. v

Difficulties have arisen in these machines however, fparticularly in theway of providing a uni orm feeding of the paper throughout 'its .entirewidth. It is Ausually either `necessary or desirable that `the strip 'ofpaper handled by the machine be of considerable width, as much as 8Oinches or even more,

-so that the problem of uniform advance of the paper over this entirewidth becomes an important one. Where paper is fed around and between aseries of rollers havin a uniform diameter throughout their lengt ,thereis a general tendency for the edges and adjacent portions of the web tobe fed slightly in advance ofthe middle portion .of the web. So, in acreping machine, there is a tendency for the lateral lines of thecrimpto become distorted and irregular and this distortion may at timesbe so great as to cause the paper tolbecome bunched and wedged betweentherollers. Where this uneven feeding of a lonO web has been encountered-in the handling o paper of considerable width in other types ofmachine, it has commonly been the practice yto provide feeding rollerswhich are crowned slightly toward their centers soas to compensate forthe normal reduction in the feeding at this point.

It is impracticable, if not altogether impossible, however, to adoptthis 'expedient in connection with creping rollers due to the fact thatthe corrugations in the surfaces of the creping rollers are quiteshallow, being.

usuallybetween .02 and .03 of an inch in depth; it would be-exceedinglydiicult to provide for this depth of kgroove uniformly over a rollerwhich has a crown of almost, if not more than', an equal amount..Furthermore, since the paper is wet as; it is being handled bytherollers, it is necessary`to provide a slight clearance between themequivalent to the thickness of the paper, otherwise the material wouldbe punctured and mutilated. Obviously, if a crown were provided on eachof the pair of co-operating rollers it would be impossible to maintain auniform clearance between them lequivalent to thethickness of the paperand it would not be possible to force the paper into the recesses.

of the rollers throughout their width.

The p-resent invention has for. its principal object the generalimprovement of creping machines and the provision of means 'forovercoming the 'obstacles usually encountered in these machines. Afeature of the invention is the provision of a soft rubber roller, orroller of similar soft, yielding, elastic qualities, in such relation tothe creping rollers as to insure their proper functionthe paper. Inattaining these results this additional roller serves to hold the paper,

after it has been crimped, in the, grooves lor corrugations of one ofthe creping rollers,

`and thus .prevents formation 0f loops or the bunching of the paper inlater sections of the machine. The use of` soft, iiexible or yieldablematerial lin the formation of this roller ascontemplated makes itpossible to provide the desired crown which aids materially in themaintenance of a uniform feed throughout the wid-th of the roller: Otherobjects and advantages will appear as the invention is describedin'detail in coning and to bring about a uniform feedingof 845 A inwhich:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic end view of the cooperating creping rollers,showing their relation to the web of paper fed through the machine. Y

Figure 2 is a plan View, partlyA in Section, showing the relation of therollers and. their driving gears, and,

Figure 3 is a detail view showing a section of the creped paper producedby the machine. Y

While the invention is disclosed herein as applied to a particu-lar formAof creping machine adapted to produce a ,creped or crimped paper of aparticular design, it is t'o be understood that this disclosure ismerely for the purposes of illustration and that the in'- vention may,with slight modification, be applied to machines of other types.

Referring now to the drawings, a web of paper 10, fed from anysui-tablesource in a Wet condition so that it is adapted to be readilymolded into or "impressed `with any esired design, if fed around acorrugated .crimping roller 11 which is adapted to be driven at asuitable speed. Rotation of the roller may be effected by means of apulley 13 mounted aft one end, driven by a belt 14 adapted to receivepower from any suitable driving source. After passing partly around.

the roller 11 the paper encounters a second corrugated or groovedcrimping roller 15. This roller is adapted to be driven at a constantspeed' which is proportional to and preferably directly equal to that ofthe roller 11. For the purpose of driving this roller, a gear 16 meshingdirectly with a gear 12 carried by the shaft of the roller 11 may beprovided. The rollers 11 and 15 are preferably formed of some metal,such as brass, or other alloy, which will not rust or be subjected tocorrosion by the moisture oru other constituents in the paper. Thesurfaces of these rollers are corrugated, being provided with shallowgrooves or depressions leaving a series of upstanding teeth orprojections which extend across substantially their entire Width. In theproduction of al standard form of creped paper suitable for themanufac-y-ture of paper towels, and the like, it has been found desirable toemploy teeth'or corrugaltions having -a depth of between .02 and .03

yof an inch and having` a pitch between teeth ofl abouti@ of an inch.The two rollers 11 and -15 are mounted in such relation as to have theirteeth or corrugations intermeshing and'they are rotated at such' speedas to maintain them in mesh. It will be obvi- .ous, therefore, that asthe paper is fed bethe paper,

periphery of the roller. Preferably, at suitable intervals along thesurface of the roller a gap of any desired width forming acircumferential depression will be left between the teeth so that in thecourse of rotation of the roller these gaps will have no eiect upon thepaper while the series of teeth are adapted j to grip the crimpedportions of the paper and mar the regularity of the lateral crlmps insome suitable wayso as to produce the desired design. Y

Referring to Figure 3, a sample of the design produced by the machine isindicated. The lateral crimps produced by the co-operation of the pairof rollers 11 and 15 are visible across the entire width of the'strip ofpaper but they are particularly pronounced along the longitudinal lines20 where they have not been marred due to the gaps between the teeth ofthe roller 18. In a series of longitudinal lines 21, however, formed bythe teeth 19, the lateral crimps are almost lobliterated by thelongitudinal impressions left by the teeth. Since the teeth of theroller 18 do not mesh with the teeth of roller 15, these need not havethe same peripheral speeds, although the teeth 19 are less apt to tearthe paper if the seeds of the two rollers are maintained the same. t

Upon leaving the co-operating portions of the rollers 15 and 18, thepaper may be passed to any suitable conveyor system, on which it will bepermitted to dry before being passed to suitable re-rolling or .cuttingmachines. This conveyor system may, for example, include a roller orpulley 22 adjacent to the roller 18 adapted to carry'a conveyor belt 23in position to receive the creped web of paper and convey it to anysuitable point for further disposition.

Theoretically, the series of rollers 11, 15 and 18 should be capable ofproducing the d esired effect on the paper withoutthe necessity ofproviding any 4additional means. However, in actual ractice it has beenfound thatthe various di culties, hereinbefor'e a1- luded to, areencountered in machines of this sort so that the result 'of theoperation of the system thus far disclosed would be the production ofirregular crimping efects, and pos-l EEO completely obviated. The roller24 should' be formed of soft, flexible or'yieldable material havingelastic qualities so that it is adapted to force or hold the paper inthe grooves or cor--v rugations of the roller 15 without permanentlydistorting the soft surface ofthe roller.

In' view of the iineness of the corrugations in the roller 15, it isquite important that the roller 24 should be formed of relatively soft.andyieldable material which is capable of entering into the finevariations in the surface.

It has been found that a soft rubber roller is admirably suited to thisparticular purpose. Rubber lhaving a density of between 100 and 110under the standard P and J plastometer test has ,been found to beespecially desirable. although it -will be understood that rrubberrollers having adiiferent density, as well as rollers formed of othermaterials, such as felt or the like, having the desired yielding andelastic qualities, will be suited to the requirements. The roller 24 maybe formed more or less completely of rubber, or similar soft material,mounted simply upon a slender mandrel or it may be in the form merely ofa relatively thin sheet of rubber applied to the outer surface of aroller formed primarily of metal or other suitable'material. The latterconstruction is regarded as somewhat preferable from the standpoint ofexpense of manufacture and it is just as effective for the intendedpurposes,

' provided the rubber sheet is of suicient thickness tohave-the desiredyielding qualities.- A construction of this sort is indicated in Figure2, in which the rubber sheet 25 is shown as applied to the surface of ametal vcylinder 26 which may be in thenature of a heavy pipe shrunk onor otherwise vcarried by a mandrel 27.

The two ends of the mandrel are preferably mounted in a pair of arms 28pivotally suspended from any suitable point 290i. the main frame of themachine. will in this way be held against the surface of the'roller 15by its .own weight, which will normally be suiicient. However, if agreater or less .pressure is desired between the contact' against therotating roller 15. As a result of this arrangement it is possible toapply a The roller 24 1y uniform diameter and the member of yieldingmaterial is a crowned roller.

3. A combination'as claimed in claim 1 slight crown to the surface ofthe roller 24 which will aid materially in bringing about 'i a uniformfeed of the paper throughout its width. It has been found thata crownof'between .02 and '.03 of an inch on a roller havlng a mean diameter'of 7inches gives quite satisfactory results, although a crown of eithergreater lor less magnitude may be found preferable under varyingconditions. Therefore, the-roller 24 not only servesto force andmaintain the partly creped paper inthe grooves or corrugati'ons of theroller 15, but it aids'materially in the feeding of a continuous web ofpaper and in the maintenanceof a uniformity of action of this feedthroughout the width of the web. If desired, a similar roller may beprovided beneath the roller 11 to assist in producing uniformity of feedin advanceof the first crimping action between the rollers 11 and 15.Such a roller,

at the same time, would serve to provide a slight initial crimp in thepaper.- The pro- ;vision of 'this additional roller, however, is

not at all essential as, in fact,.completely satisfactory resultsmaybe'obtained by the.` use of a'v single iiexibleroller as indicated.

While various features of the invention have been described inconsiderable detail and certainspecic .dimensions have been mentioned,it is to be clearly understood that these have been specified merely byway of illustration of one admirable form of the invention. They are notto be regarded as imposing any limitations on its scope. Furthermore,the terms employed throughout the description are to be regarded merelyas appropriately designating the various portions of one suitable formof the invention and not, as imposing any limitations thereon.

,What I claim is:

1. In a machine of the class described, means for feeding and crimpingacontinuous web of paper, said means comprising a grooved roller, andmeans comprising a member formed of yielding material such as softrubber adapted to extend across substantially the whole width of saidgrooved roller for I maintaining previously crimped paper againstbunching and providing for an even wherein the grooved rollerispositively driven and the member of yielding material is a rollerfrictionally vdriven by said grooved.

roller.

4. A combination as claimed in claim 1V wherein the crimping meanscomprises a' plurality of grooved rollers providing for two successivecrimping actions and wherein the member of yielding materialY contactswith the web at a point between said crimping actions. l v 5. In amachine of the class described a plurality of crimping rollers adaptedto crimp a 5 web of paper continuously fed around and between saidrollers, and separatenon-crimping means cooperating with one of saidrollers to provide uniform feeding of the paper around said roller.

In' testimony whereof., I have signed my name to this speciicationthis11th day of v J anuary- 1930.

HORACE A. SHEESLEY.

